Call of the river

Paddling Ivalojoki with the Gumotex Palava

By Erik Plankton

October 27^th, 2023

Volume 3.

I paddled the Ivalojoki river in northern Finland for the third time in the last week of August 2023. This time alone, and as the first proper trip for the Gumotex Palava inflatable canoe I purchased earlier this year. The Palava is 4 meters long, weighs 17,5 kg, has room for two, and is rated up to class 3 whitewater. Having some experience with packrafts I reasoned that the higher seating position combined with massive space for gear would make longer trips enjoyable. The challenge would be to fit the boat, pump, paddles, repair materials, helmet etc. into one bag within the airline limit of 23 kg. Then all the other gear, food, drysuit and clothes would go into another bag to make everything barely movable at once for short distances.

Early morning hop from Helsinki to Ivalo > bus to Saariselkä from the airport > breakfast and some groceries at Kuukkeli shopping center> taxi from Saariselkä to the starting point at Kuttura. The boat inflated and packed at 11.30. Let's go!

Call of the river

The beauty of the Ivalojoki river does not cease to amaze. On the contrary, the more you spend time there, the more you want to go again. And I will. With over 20 rapids it is enough challenging to keep things interesting, but relatively safe to go solo as well. The discharge was around 70m3/s which is in my opinion quite optimal. The last time down the river in a canoe it was around 40m2/s and were constantly pinballing on the rocks getting stuck about a dozen times. This time I touched the rocks only a few times making the paddling very enjoyable.

Sun was shining and a small grayling accepted my offer on the second cast of the trip. Things felt really promising. Took a little break to check out the Kyläjoki day hut. Not much to see but some gratuitous hiker had left a jackpot behind: a nice Real Turmat meal, chocolate, and two beers! I have never before discovered anything so exciting in an open wilderness hut. I left the loot untouched.

Saarnaköngäs

The first real rapid was Saarnaköngäs, where I managed to capsize in 2014 by taking the wrong line. This time my line was solid and enjoyed the ride and continued happily toward the first camp after emptying some water from the boat. The Gumotex Palava is a relatively dry boat on smaller rapids because the wide bow deflects the waves to the side, rather than over it.

Appisjoki camp

After another 6 km of paddling, I arrived at the first planned campsite at the mouth of the Appisjoki river. One of my favorite camp spots on the river with a wide open view and sunshine into the evening. The weather was perfect and warm at around 13°C. Time for some evening fishing and a pizza after not catching any keepers. Beautiful fog over the river banks in the morning.

Ivalojoki Kultala

This historical place can be called the epicenter of the Finnish gold rush era:

The Ivalo River has been nicknamed the "River of gold". During the Lapland gold rush in the 1870s, the place Kultala was built on the banks of the river some 17 kilometre (11 mi) down of Kuttura as a base for the state agency, distributing prospecting permits and warrants, cashing gold catches, monitoring gold property orders, and preparing claim maps.

Second camp

After a brief stop at Kultala it was time to continue towards the confluence of the Sotajoki river, which is known to be a good place to catch some bigger trout. Well nobody was home and hungry so I pondered should I spend the night here or backtrack up the river about a kilometer to the perfect camping spot with a soft sandy beach I had seen a while ago. Up the river it was. After about 20 minutes of battling the current with the last 5 minutes at maximum effort, I made it. The otherwise amazing two-piece Ursuit Gemino Navigator drysuit couldn't keep up with the evaporation and I was completely soaked in sweat. So everything off and into the river for a refreshing dip. Spent the remainder of the evening sitting by the fire still and seeing how close the reindeer would come without noticing or being bothered. They came about to a distance of 10 meters before noticing I was there.

Sunrise

Towards Ritakoski

Another day with good weather dawned and I slowly continued towards the next planned camp at Ritakoski wilderness hut, which is also another important place in the gold rush saga. From Kyläjoki to Ritakoski is the most beautiful part of the river with rapids after another and amazing scenery with canyon walls. I tried to make the most of it by occasionally stopping paddling and just let the current take me.

The luxury of travelling alone is the absence of time and schedule. Move, eat, sleep, and shit when you feel like it. That's really it. - Erik Plankton

The Ritakoski rapids is a very enjoyable ride for about 1,4 kilometers and we have never stopped to check out the old gold station before. The wilderness hut is really beautiful with an old open fireplace (which is now equipped with a more efficient stove inside it). Spent the evening fishing the bend, but only caught small ones. This rapid had also claimed at least two canoes that were laying discarded on the banks. Three paddlers and one hiker showed up for the night, so I set my tent in the level field for the night.

Change of scenery

After Ritakoski the river mellows out a bit and the rocky steep banks turn into vast gravel slopes.

Louhioja

With such great weather, I intentionally tried to advance as slowly as possible always stopping to cast a few times in nice-looking spots when possible. Despite the effort I kept catching only small ones and respecting the rules for the minimum legal size I let them grow. The conjunction of the Louhioja stream would be my next camp. The spot is really nice with views over the river and about 400 meters up the trail there is a wilderness hut. Nobody was there, but I still wanted to hear the water so I pitched my tent close to the river and enjoy the evening sunset perhaps for the last time. There is no phone reception on this part of the river, so I downloaded a weather forecast on my Garmin GPS66i device. I still had two days before the departing flight, so I contemplated whether I should paddle the remaining km the next day in good weather and then spend a night in a hotel at Ivalo - or stay put and enjoy another day in the wilderness relaxing and then do a hard last push in horrible weather...

Obvious choice

So of course I chose the latter and spent the next day sleeping late, hanging in camp, setting up my tarp over the tent, and building a makeshift tiipii over the fireplace from the old and torn tarp I found lying around. ...And almost catching the trout of my dreams.

As soon as the long cast into the middle current of the river landed I felt THE BITE, and immediately knew this is not your average grayling.

My 4-piece 7" lightweight rod was bent to the max as the powerful fish took a sprint with the current with the line running from the spool with an exponentially satisfying sound. I started walking downstream after it to stabilize the situation. Luckily the terrain was open and easy. After a while things settled as the fish came out of the main flow and jumped in the air. Trout. A big one. After a good fight I came close to glory, but the fact that the hand net simply could not fit into the airline regulated bags bit me severely. I got the fish on to the rocks and grabbed its neck, but it was so thick that I simply could not hold my grip when it started to wiggle in a frenzy throwing the lure from its jaws on to the grass on the shore. It swam away gracefully.

Ok, I just messed up my record trout. Felt a bit pissed for a while, but kept on going encouraged about the fact that this is a good spot for bigger fish. About 20 minutes later I hooked a 50 cm grayling and took it in without problems. Dinner secured.

Rain & headwind

The rain started around 04:00 on Friday night. I don't recall if I have ever been out in the wilderness in such a heavy non-stop rain for 24 hours. Having prepared for this it was not a problem. I had the tarp above my tent to provide a nice awning to keep the rain out while cooking breakfast. In the early morning, I realized that on the ridge there is minimal phone coverage. I managed to send a text message to the taxi and request for a pickup later on. After about two hours I got a reply that a car would be waiting for me at Lappispola at 14:00. Rain was constant and torrential. It was a 14 km paddle to Lappispola with the most challenging Toloskoski rapid as the finale. Unfortunately, the wind had picked up and totally from the wrong direction.

Sat down in the boat at 10:00 and started paddling like crazy. The biggest rapid of the river went out of old memory and after three hours I was at the pickup zone. It took almost the entire hour to deflate the Gumotex and prepare everything for the flight back. All my gear was soaking wet and the weight of both of my bags exceeded the 23 kg limit by over 1,5 kg. Luckily the Finnair attendant was very understanding and charged only for one of the two bags for 60€.